Quick SEO Tip: Optimizing Content

By: Matt Ulmer 9. 22. 16

Successfully optimizing the content on a webpage used to be about artfully blending highly searched keyword phrases with sentences that appeared written for human beings, not search engine spiders. This consistently proved to be a difficult task, as human beings don’t think like search engine spiders.

But those spiders have gotten significantly smarter lately. And at least when it comes to Google, this no longer needs to be the process.

Natural language

You may have heard the term “natural language” a lot lately. Calendar and to-do apps claim you can create an event using natural language – just type ”Meet Matt at 1 on Friday” or “Remind me to cancel lunch with Matt at 3 today.”

Siri and Alexa and Cortana and all the other anthropomorphized AI technology systems promise this as well. Speak to them with natural language to get what you want.

Google’s search engine algorithm is abiding by this same principle. No longer do you need to pepper your content with exact match keyword phrases that read awkwardly. Google wants you to use natural language. Google wants your webpage to be written with the sole purpose of providing useful content to someone in search of such content. In other words – write for people.

Sure, keyword research still has its place and should be conducted. But your usage of exact match keywords needs to change.

Instead, use synonyms of keywords. Write passages with the gist of the keyword. Focus on a theme. Your webpage doesn’t need a main keyword, it needs a main theme. It needs to serve a purpose, and your content needs to fulfill that purpose.

Be useful

The key is to provide useful content. Google looks at the message, at the user experience, at the purpose. Google’s entire goal is to serve up content that serves the exact needs of its searchers. It believes it’s become smart enough to know when content is about a topic related to a search term. So your job is not to try to game that system by filling your content with the terms you think people are searching, in an effort to show Google that your page is relevant for that term. Your job is to write your content to be as useful to searchers as possible.

Think about how your potential users might search. Think about the types of information they want. Then write that content. Google will do the rest.